ATHENS - Michael Phelps' quest for a record number of gold medals was crushed by a wave Sunday night, and the wave was created by a surprising South African relay team.
The U.S. men's 4x100 meter freestyle relay team finished third, the Americans' worst Olympic showing in the event, as South Africa won in world record time, 3 minutes, 13.17 seconds, for the country's first men's swimming gold.
The Netherlands took the silver, with its star, Pieter van den Hoogenband, passing American anchor Jason Lezak at the wall.
"They went out fast, and we tried to catch up," said Phelps, who swam second. "It's a learning experience."
Phelps came into the Games attempting to at least tie Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals, won in Munich in 1972. He got off to a good start Saturday by winning his signature event, the 400 individual medley. When his spot in the relay final was cemented Sunday, Phelps had a chance to win eight.
With six events left, the best Phelps can do now is tie Spitz's record, and there's no margin for error. Next up is today's 200 freestyle final, a race that has been dominated by world record holder Ian Thorpe of Australia. In Sunday's preliminaries, Phelps qualified third, behind van den Hoogenband, the 2000 gold medalist, and Thorpe.
The Americans already seemed to be laying the groundwork for failure. "Michael will not miss a beat if he doesn't win seven gold medals," U.S. coach Eddie Reese said.
In the relay, visions of first place were gone well before Phelps hit the water. Ian Crocker, who had been suffering from a sore throat the past few days, opened with a stunningly poor 50.05 seconds in the first 100, the slowest 100 in the eight-team field. He trailed Roland Schoeman of South Africa by almost two seconds and touched the wall in last place.
With a split of 48.74, Phelps did well to get the team back in medal contention, pulling into sixth, and Neil Walker's stellar effort, 47.97, got it to third.
The South Africans celebrated by jumping up and down on the pool deck, exchanging high fives with spectators and flexing their muscles on the starting block.
"As the movie says, any given Sunday," Schoeman said. "Before the race, I told the guys that today was our Sunday."
The Americans' finish put into brighter focus controversy over who was selected for the final. Not included was Gary Hall Jr., who swam the anchor legs on the teams that won gold in 1996 and silver in 2000, and who had criticized Phelps' tentative selection Friday. He, along with Lezak, had been vocal about not including Phelps because he had not swum the 100 freestyle, the usual qualifier, in the trials.
The controversy picked up steam when Reese selected the ailing Crocker.
Hall did not attend the final. His manager, David Arluck, said he probably would not comment until after his final event, the 50 freestyle Friday.
Across the board, a windy night at the pool didn't turn out well for the Americans.
World record-holder Brendan Hansen, swimming on his 23rd birthday, finished second in the 100 breaststroke to Japan's Kosuke Kitajima.
Jenny Thompson was again denied an individual gold, finishing fifth in the 100 butterfly. Any medal would have been the 12th of Thompson's career, more than any other American, but she remains tied with swimmers Spitz and Matt Biondi and shooter Carl Osburn.
"It was a tough field," Thompson said. "It just wasn't in the cards."
Petria Thomas of Australia took the gold with an upset of defending champion Inge de Bruijn, who settled for bronze.
Also winning gold on the second night of the meet: 18-year-old Laure Manaudou of France in the women's 400 freestyle, with American Kaitlin Sandeno slipping in for bronze.
